Good Sunday morning to you. With the grandkids in town for the holidays, breakfast today will have to be at some place with lots of room to run.

Since Murrieta incorporated in 1991, the community has had six city managers, six fire chiefs and nine police chiefs.

In that same — 22 years — its had just one city clerk. On Christmas Eve, Kay Vinson will finish packing up her office and head off into retirement.

“I’m going to spend more time with my grandchildren and more time at the beach,” she told me.

Vinson, who has spent a total of 36 years working in municipal government, was among the first employees hired after Murrieta incorporated.

Her career began in her small home town of Indianola, Iowa where she married her high school sweetheart and worked for a decade as the deputy city clerk.

However, the couple, both self-proclaimed Parrot Heads – fans of performer Jimmy Buffett who croons tunes about tropical breezes and keeping warm – decided to leave the snow and freezing temperatures behind.

“We really wanted to get out of the Iowa winters,” she laughed.

An opening for a municipal records clerk in Barstow came to her attention and the couple made the move.

“We were afraid California would be too crowded,” she said. “But we liked what we found in Barstow.”

While working there, Vinson ran successfully for the City Clerk’s office, which was an elected, not appointed position.

In the late 1980s the couple traveled through Southwest Riverside County often, usually on their way to visit a daughter who was a college student and then worked in San Diego.

“My husband always said this looked like it would be a nice place to live,” she said.

Not long after Murrieta’s incorporation election, newly hired City Manager Jack Smith began to assemble his small staff. Vinson applied for the City Clerk for the position which, unlike Barstow, didn’t require her to run for the office.

One of the primary duties of a city clerk is to be the official election officer in the community.

“It was nice that I wouldn’t have to conduct the elections and run for office at the same time,” she said.

Cityhood for Murrieta arrived about the same time the economic boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s went bust and times were tough for the new city and staff.

“The first Christmas, our bonus was a grocery store canned ham,” Vinson laughed. “And the city council paid for them from their own pockets.”

At Murrieta’s first birthday party, council members grilled hot dogs for the community and the staff wore T-shirts that read “I Survived the First Year.”

Murrieta’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed over two decades. There have been recall elections and raucous council meetings, along with special moments like opening a new city hall, police station, library, and senior and youth centers.

Through it all, Vinson has kept a steady course not only as the city’s chief election official, but preparing official documents and filings and maintaining city records.

She has also provided straight-forward answers to questions from council members, residents and the media.

“I see the job as being a liaison between city officials and the community,” she said. “As a city clerk we take an oath of neutrality.”

So we wish Kay Vinson well as she prepares to set sail from this “one particular harbor” and enjoy the grandkids and the beach and all that comes with it.